The present invention has general application in all vehicles that normally require, in order to drive them, the ability of the user to grip with one or both hands upon a handgrip of a suitable steering means, allowing the vehicle to be driven even by disabled persons without this ability, for example following amputation or disablement. The invention has a preferred, but not exclusive, application in motorcycles, and more specifically in motorcycles for motocross, in which greater gripping ability on the vehicle is required.
Generally, in vehicles, the steering means is represented by handlebars or by a steering wheel the movement of which is controlled directly by the user holding it. Moreover, such steering means are typically provided with one or more controls of the vehicle able to be operated directly by the hands of the user while they are gripping onto the steering means. An example of vehicles of this type is represented by a motorcycle, on the steering means of which (the handlebars) are provided special handgrips that can be gripped by the user with which the accelerator is also controlled and whose hands can easily operate the brake or clutch lever. This possibility of controlling the vehicle is, however, obviously does not apply to disabled persons, without the ability to grip with the hand.
In order to at least partially tackle the need to allow conventional vehicles to also be driven by these persons, it is known to provide attachments to secure the free extremity of an upper limb of a user to the handlebars of a motorcycle. Such attachments comprise an open sheath, suitably secured to the handlebars of the motorcycle, in which an extremity of the limb is received: the sheath can also be closed by a binding that holds the extremity of the limb inside the sheath.
Such a solution does, however, have some relevant drawbacks, the first of which resulting from the fact that the binding is a relatively laborious and complicated operation and necessarily requires the use of hands. This, in the case in which the disabled person is incapable of gripping with both hands, means that it is impossible for the person to carry out such an operation without somebody else's help.
A second relevant drawback of the aforementioned known solution is given by its intrinsic lack of safety. Indeed, it should be noted that, once bound to the sheath, the limb is fixedly secured to it, and thus to the vehicle, without the possibility of quickly disengaging it. Therefore, in the case of a fall, the user is inevitably dragged along the ground attached to the motorcycle, with greater danger to his well-being.
A further drawback is given by the fact that devices of this type are not sufficient to ensure that motorcycles can also be driven by disabled persons that are unable to grip with both hands. Indeed, they are not generally studied so as to be able to operate all of the controls of the motorcycle foreseen on conventional handlebars.